What Is Collagen and Why Should You Care?

By Tiffany M. Darnold, MMS, PA-C, Couture Med Spa Oviedo

As you get older, you may be worried about how you are going to look. Will you glow as you become a parent for the first time? What about as you hit your milestone birthday? Or even as a grandparent?

I don’t know about you, but wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up! Unfortunately, wrinkles come naturally as a result of collagen and elastin loss. Many factors play into how fast our collagen becomes a thing of the past, but it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. We have many tools to help boost collagen for a lasting youthful appearance.

As Coco Chanel once said: “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. It is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.” So let’s break down how you can ensure your skin doesn’t lose the precious collagen that it needs!

Understanding You and Your Skin

For those that are full of questions about collagen, here are a few “nerdy” facts about your skin:

Your skin is comprised of three very important layers: the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis. All of which have important roles in keeping us young and healthy. I am going to focus on the dermal-epidermal junction which can sag over time due to damage, thus making wrinkles appear on the surface.

These wrinkles and sagging are due to the degradation of collagen over time, weakening the skin’s internal structure and breaking down the elastin in the process. This starts to create deep wrinkles on the surface of your skin as the flexibility and elasticity of the skin began to decline. This is also why stretch marks appear as the three layers of skin stretch and the middle layer begins to tear.

What is Collagen?

Collagen is a naturally occurring protein in your body and when you are a child you have an abundance of it. Collagen is responsible for helping build connective tissue in everything from our muscles and bones from our hair to our skin. That’s right! Collagen was partially responsible for your cute baby face!

Think of collagen as the glue that holds everything together or the matrix that supports and holds up your skin making it appear smooth. Different types of collagen play different roles in your body. In fact, there are over 20 different types of collagen, 90 percent of which is made up of Type I and Type II collagen.

Type I collagen, in particular, is the most common and makes up about 90 percent of our hair, skin, and nails. So, help your skin by promoting healthy collagen production to keep your skin plumped, youthful, glowing, and wrinkle-free. After all, camera filters don’t follow you around in real life.

A Damaging Lifestyle Kills Collagen Production

Lifestyle can drastically reduce collagen production! Collagen responds poorly to excessive stress, sun damage, unhealthy sugary diets, alcohol, and smoking. It also naturally diminishes as we age.

Starting in our 20s, we lose about 1-2% of our body’s collagen per year. That equals about 20-40% loss of collagen by the age of 40 years old. I don’t want to have wrinkles in my 40s and neither should you! You can help counteract the damage from your lifestyle, or just mother nature, with the right skincare regimen. In fact, a medical spa, like Couture Med Spa, will have many collagen-boosting treatments for you to choose from.

Contact us to set up a free consultation!

Be a Natural Beauty with Fractional Lasers

Don’t like to use products on your face? Don’t fret! Here at Couture Med Spa, we have the solution for you. We care about our clients and want to help develop a treatment plan specifically based on your desires and needs.

Our best-kept secret is our non-ablative fractional technology

Fractional lasers use microbeams of energy to stimulate your own collagen production. Fractionals stimulate collagen production all the way in the deep dermal layer to help improve wrinkles, reduce stretch marks, and fade scars to help you look years younger. There is virtually no downtime due to our newest non-ablative technology, so now you can get that smooth, wrinkle-free look without the wait!

Boost Your Results with Retinol!

If you’re looking for the best medical-grade products on the market, then our retinol serum is exactly what you need! Retinol fights wrinkles and renews your skin by speeding up cell turnover and stimulating more collagen to develop naturally.

This will help give you that youthful appearance by supporting your skin and increasing your skin’s elasticity. Start your retinol use 3 times a week at night and then boost your youthful look by increasing to 4-5 times per week. I also recommend using one of our medical-grade moisturizers and UltiMATTE Sunscreen during the day which pairs well with your retinol.

Using these treatments and understanding the role of collagen is vital in your journey to youthful skin.

Remember, your skincare routine should become a habit that you never break!

Tiffany’s Skin Care Regimen

Tip: A general rule of thumb is to start with your lightest product and end with your creamiest.

Cleanse…………………………………………………………………….……2 min

Recommended: Couture Antioxidant Cleanser (AM & PM)

Double Cleanse/Exfoliate………………………………………….…….…..2 min

Recommended: Couture Age Defying Scrub (AM & PM)

Toner…………………………………………………………………………….1 min

Toner is only needed when you need to restore your skin’s healthy natural pH. If you are using a pH balanced cleanser such as our Couture Antioxidant Cleanser or Couture Age Defying Scrub there is no need to tone separately, but if not then I recommend our pH-balanced Clarifying Pads which can be used in place of a toner. (AM & PM)

Apply Serums………………………………………………………………….1 min

Recommended: Couture Retinol Serum (PM), Couture Vitamin C Serum (AM & PM), and Hyaluronic Serum (AM & PM)

Moisturize………………………………………………………………………1 min

Recommended: Renew Biotherapy Night Cream (PM) or Moisturizing Day Cream (AM & PM)

Sunscreen………………………………………………………………………1 min

Recommended: UltiMATTE Sun Shade (AM) or Vitamin C Antioxidant Sunscreen (AM)

May you (and your skin) live long, healthy lives.

-Love, Tiffany M. Darnold, MMS, PA-C